Fire takes down Bonsall home

BONSALL – Flames destroyed a roughly 3,000-square-foot home in Bonsall the morning of June 5 but the family was not inside the house when it started and several dogs in the home were able to escape.

The blaze in the 4200 block of Via De Los Cepillos was first reported about 4:50 a.m. by a neighbor who noticed "a glow'' emanating from the home, North County Fire Protection District spokesman John Buchanan said. The home was fully engulfed by the time the first firefighters arrived.

"They chose to make it a defensive fire fight,'' said Buchanan, meaning crews did not enter the home but instead doused the flames from the outside.

Nobody was home at the time and several dogs inside the house escaped on their own, Buchanan said. A neighbor tracked down the pets and was temporarily caring for them.

The home was near the south-western edge of where the Lilac fire scorched roughly 4,100 acres in December.

Because of the size of the home and the fire, a bomb-arson team from the San Diego County Sheriff's Department was responding to help NCFPD investigators probe the cause of the fire, Buchanan said. The home was considered a complete loss.